I had been meaning to write about this earlier, but given the way events are unfolding in the Fukushima nuclear crisis, an article published in May in the Japan Times about an ALT returning to finish his contract isn't so outdated.

On one hand, it's admirable that this guy and the other ALTs decided to stick around and finish their contracts. But on the other hand, I wonder if they are not fools for willfully living so close to a nuclear reactor that has melted down.

Over the past 10 years, LJ has gone from being a website that tried to warn others about the pitfalls of working for GEOS, to documenting the criminal activities that are a part of eikaiwa, large and small schools alike.

The March 19th edition of the Toyo Keizai magazine reports an embarrassing situation for G.communication.

According to the article (see attached PDF), G.com was looking to raise to some money last October, so it sought financing from Yohohama-based BOW Networks and put up a sizable chunk of its shares in G.Taste, G.Networks, and Yakiniku Saki as collateral. The shares amounted from around 4 to 10 per cent of G.com's issued stock and had a value at the time of about 500 million yen.

One aspect of the disastrous earthquake and tsunami is that it has caused certain food items to disappear from stores all over the Kanto region. Although I live in Chiba, hundreds of kilometers away from the disaster area, you'd be hard pressed to find milk, rice, bottled water, bread, instant noodles, or any other packaged ready-to-eat item. That said, the shelves are still full of fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, and fish.

This is revolting. Tatsuya Ichihashi has written about his 31 months as a fugitive while in prision. According to the book's publisher, Gentosha, the book is "'part of an act of contrition for the crime," and said he plans to hand over any royalties to Hawker's family.'"